Deer hunters hit the woods

SWAN LAKE — While some hunters take to tree stands to await their prey, Dutch Sutton prefers the ground.

Leonard Sparks

SWAN LAKE — While some hunters take to tree stands to await their prey, Dutch Sutton prefers the ground.

And while others choose high-powered rifles for distance shooting, Sutton relishes the challenge of hunting with a 12-gauge shotgun.

And although the meat is the thing for many hunters, Sutton belongs to the tribe who return to the woods each deer season to also capture a way of life.

"That freedom of movement, the air," Sutton, who splits his time between Brooklyn and Swan Lake, said when asked why he likes hunting. "It's something different and you get away from the inner city."

Saturday marked the beginning of another bear and deer hunting season in the state's Southern Zone, whose motels, diners and convenience stores will draw a steady stream of orange-clad hopefuls until the season closes at sunset on Dec. 9.

The zone, which includes Orange, Sullivan and Ulster counties, draws participation from about 85 percent of the state's 550,000 deer hunters and accounts for nearly 60 percent of the state's deer harvest, according to the DEC.

Paulo Neves hit the woods at 6 a.m., mainly to make sure his 90-acre property in Bethel was free of trespassing hunters. Just before 9 a.m. he was back at Artistic Creations Taxidermy, his Swan Lake-based mounting business that draws clients from around the country.

Just this week he received a mountain goat, a grizzly bear and a bull moose. Saturday morning brought more calls from people hunting locally.

"I got a phone call from a guy at seven in the morning," said Neves, whose father, Fernando Neves, owns Neves Taxidermy in Bethel.

Liberty resident Julio Sanchez unloaded his gear from a van parked on Hilldale Road in Fallsburg about 7:30 a.m. His friend Marvin Passa waited patiently as Sanchez moved quickly so he could get into the woods.

"You get here early and you get in one spot," said Sanchez, 58, who was introduced to hunting in 1970.

By 8 a.m. Sutton and Russell Jones were ready for a break. They rested at Sutton's Swan Lake property while the rest of their party hunting remained in the woods.

Jones, 69, killed his first deer as an 11-year-old neophyte hunter in South Carolina. At first he did not realize he "hit the damn thing," he said. But the day spawned a lifelong passion.